College of Chemistry

How a record-breaking copper catalyst converts CO2 into liquid fuels

February 21, 2023
By Theresa Duque | Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Artist’s rendering of a copper nanoparticle.Artist’s rendering of a copper nanoparticle as it evolves during CO2 electrolysis: Copper nanoparticles (left) combine into larger metallic copper “nanograins” (right) within seconds of the electrochemical reaction, reducing CO2 into new multicarbon products. (Credit: Yao Yang/Berkeley Lab)...

Shine On: Avalanching Nanoparticles Break Barriers to Imaging Cells in Real Time

January 13, 2021
By Theresa Duque | Berkeley Lab

Thulium-doped avalanching nanoparticles

From left: Experimental images of thulium-doped avalanching nanoparticles separated by 300 nanometers; at right, simulations of the same material. (Credit: Berkeley Lab and Columbia University)

Since the earliest microscopes, scientists have been on a quest to build instruments with finer and finer resolution to image a cell’s proteins – the tiny machines that...

Meet our faculty: John Hartwig

November 15, 2019
by Katrina Krämer | Chemistry World

John Hartwig

Image: © Peter Strain @ Début Art

The catalysis innovator on the thrills of heading to the mountains and having a reaction named after him.

John Hartwig is the Henry Rapoport Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He received the 2019 Wolf Prize in Chemistry. His research aims to find new metal-catalysed reactions, and he was one of the developers of the Buchwald-...

Department of Chemistry welcomes new faculty

May 10, 2019
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Alanna Schepartz and Michael Zuerch join the department of chemistry

Matthew Francis, Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, announces the addition of two new faculty members who will join the College in July. Alanna Schepartz joins the faculty as the T. Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Chair in Chemistry; Michael Zuerch joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry.

Introducing our new faculty members and their lab groups

September 3, 2019
by Michael Barnes | College of Chemistry

Fall semester at UC Berkeley brings cool air, sunny skies and hordes of nervous incoming first-year undergrads to the campus. At the College of Chemistry, the beginning of the semester also triggers a sudden epidemic of goofy handmade posters that seem to multiply and cover every available vertical surface.

Lab promotional posters for UC Berkeley College of Chemistry

Recruiting posters for...

UC Berkeley scientists develop new spectroscopic probe for the secrets of complex interfaces

February 4, 2019
Press Release | US Department of Energy
The DOE has announced in a news release that Professor of Chemistry Richard Saykally and colleagues have devised a spectroscopy method that probes buried graphene layers inside graphite.

Big data at the atomic scale: new detector reaches new frontier in speed

February 21, 2019
Berkeley Lab News Center | by Glenn Roberts Jr.
Advances in electron microscopy have opened up a new window into the nanoscale world and brought a wide range of samples into focus as never before.

New microscope technology energizes undergraduate research

March 14, 2022
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Zeiss microscope

Chemistry senior Nadia Berndt prepares scans for her investigation of charge dynamics in clay encapsulated 2D materials. Photo: Michael Barnes

The College of Chemistry has received a new state-of-the-art EVO LS 15 scanning electron microscope (SEM) provided by ZEISS in support of the instructional physical chemistry labs. The new SEM will allow our students to take images of...

Birgitta Whaley: Finding the quantum in biology

October 28, 2020
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Birgitta Whaley, Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center, presented this year's endowed G.N. Lewis Lecture at the College of Chemistry. Professor Whaley currently serves on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is a foremost expert in the fields of quantum information, quantum physics, molecular quantum mechanics, and quantum biology.

This lecture is given annually in honor of Gilbert Newton Lewis who was the...

Print, recycle, repeat: Scientists demonstrate a biodegradable printed circuit

September 1, 2022
Theresa Duque | Berkeley Lab

A Berkeley Lab-led research team has developed a fully recyclable and biodegradable printed circuit. The research could divert wearable devices and other flexible electronics from landfill, and mitigate the health and environmental hazards posed by heavy metal waste. (Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab)

According to the United Nations, less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste gets recycled. In 2021 alone, global e-waste surged at 57.4 million tons, and only 17.4% of that was...